Storage media suitable for storing vast amounts of information content include streaming tape cartridges. Streaming tape drives are used to transfer multiple blocks of user data to and from the tape cartridges in a single streaming operation, rather than as a series of start-stop operations. Streaming tape is particularly well suited for backup operations as well as for providing archival and retrieval operations for vast quantities of information.
For even greater storage capacity, a plurality of tape drives and multiple tape cartridges can be positioned within a tape library. In these types of tape libraries, a library controller needs to be able to distinguish between the various tape drives within the library. Typically, this can be accomplished by associating a physical address of the tape drive with a logical address of the tape drive. A tape drive controller, separate from the tape drive itself, used in conjunction with a physical address, defined externally from the tape drive, has been used in conventional systems. In this type of system, the tape drive controller would read a dip switch or a geographical address representing the physical location of the tape drive.
In the past, the tape library system controller of certain systems would use a predefined map between the logical communication address and the physical location address. When the tape library system controller received a message from a tape drive with a certain logical communication address, the tape library system controller associated the tape drive to its location in the tape library using the predefined map.
However, in a tape library (or another type of media library) with tape drives directly connected using Ethernet with no intermediary tape drive controller, reading the physical location has previously not been accomplished without at least requiring inconvenient and/or costly modification to the tape drives.